7 Years

Niki and I have been married 7 years today. AMAZING! It’s weird, but it seems both like we haven’t been married that long and like we’ve been married a lot longer than that at the same time.

In a lot of ways, our marriage is fresh, exciting, and new. We have both changed a lot in the last 7 years — in great ways that I never could have predicted. We’ve also set out on new adventures together — in the last 4 years we’ve had 2 kids, bought a house, made 3 job changes between us, started a church, and begun adopting a third child. We’ve also made some incredible life-long friends together, found new favorite vacation spots, and made some unforgettable memories.

In other ways, it seems like we’ve been together going on 20 years! We’ve shared a lot of life together and worked through a lot of problems together. In our first 2 years alone, we experienced enough conflict and stress to last us for 15 years! We’ve been on top of the world together and we’ve been close to quitting, too. From temper tantrums (me), to Lysol wars (laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe), to nearly getting arrested (“nearly” being operative…), we’ve truly lived. It’s only taken 7 years to write, but our story is a rich one. As Niki said last night, we’ve had our hard times, but all of our times have been wonderful.

If life is a dance, then we’ve spent our fair share of time stepping on each other’s toes. But now it’s like we’ve found our step, we’re in sync, and we’re moving really well together. I anticipate there will be hard times ahead, but I look forward to one day tearing up the dance floor together like jitterbug champions!